09 November 2012

Yikes. No updates here for awhile . . .
What better way to kick this neglected blog thing back to life than with a somewhat tardy acknowledgement of Max Biaggi's retirement from racing motorcycles.
I only witnessed the man ride once--earlier this year, in fact--but was always a fan of his sublimely smooth and economical riding style, paired as it was with his mercurial personality and . . . ah, assertive competitive instincts. A fan I was, even if I could hardly fault the occasional rider straining to get his hands around Max's neck.
So. Cheers, to a racer.

01 May 2012

I had spent the Saturday night with friends in Atlanta so I wasn’t
able to watch the San Marino Grand Prix from Imola live Sunday morning as I normally
would have. While I drove back to Athens
late Sunday morning, wondering whether my VCR had rendered the race to tape as
instructed, the DJ spoke up with news from the Formula 1 racing series. Instantly on alert, this notice coming over
the air in NASCAR country, where Formula 1 essentially didn’t exist and
certainly had never been mentioned on any radio program I had ever heard, I
waited for news of an event grim enough to merit mention. Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna of
Brazil has been killed in Italy, in a racing accident.

I don’t actually remember whether my VCR recorded the
race. I think not. I’ve seen plenty of footage in the years
since, and I remember going through all the foreign papers in the university
library in the days and weeks that followed, seeking a breadth and depth of
coverage that approached my own sense of loss.

I didn’t know the man.
Now I know he had human flaws to match his super-human talents. I’ve come think it silly to invest too much in
sporting stars. They’re just people, if highly
talented, skilled, and dedicated people engaged in admirable pursuits. But Senna occupied considerable space in my
consciousness at the time and in the years around it; he was F1, to me. His genius,
competitiveness, passion, and sheer singlemindedness made it easy for a high
school and college kid to be drawn in to his orbit. I, along with my father and brother, was
drawn all the way to Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, in August 1993, my first and
still only first-hand F1 race attendance.

I’m not sure that Spa experience could ever be
bettered. And I’m certain there will be
no displacing of Senna.